Deren's book on
Voudoun was called
Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti, written in
1953.
She's something like the mother of
avant-garde cinema, not only before her time in the films she made, but also pretty much the only female working in film or the
avant garde at that time. Her real name was Eleanora Derenkowsky, and she was born in
Kiev. She went to
Smith College, and was also accomplished in poetry, fiction, and dance.